Knotweed treatment service offered by the council

CITY and County of Swansea residents are to get the opportunity to get their Japanese knotweed problem treated with a little help from council experts

The council is introducing a new service that will aim to use its years of experience in tackling the issue on public land to help residents tackle the problem in their own backyards.

The initiative is being launched next month and it could help hundreds of homeowners deal with a plant that is among the most invasive in Britain and among the hardest of plant problems to resolve.

Mark Child, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Healthy City, said the council has built up years of experience in tackling the problem on land it owns and now it’s offering its expertise to private homeowners and businesses on a commercial basis.

He said: “Anyone who’s had to put up with Japanese knotweed knows that standard weedkiller doesn’t touch it and the tiniest amount left behind will re-grow quickly during the growing season.

“Infestations can not only take over your garden and damage your plants, they can also damage property and even affect property values.

“As a council we have a responsibility to adequately control it on our own patch and in council house tenants’ gardens. But private householders have always been responsible for what happens on their own ground.

“Now the treatment service we’re offering will bring forward the expertise we’ve built up over the last 20 years in the treatment of Japanese knotweed to help householders and businesses deal with the problem. How much it will cost will depend on the extent of infestation.”

The new service is part of Swansea Council’s innovative new commercialisation programme which aims to use council expertise to develop new businesses, the proceeds from which will help maintain provision of core services like education and social care.

Local authorities in England have already introduced commercial services as a way of increasing income to offset budget reductions and a local government survey published last week suggests the practice will grow in the years ahead.

Clive Lloyd, Cabinet Member for Transformation and Performance, said Cabinet signed up to a new commercialism strategy earlier this year.

He said: “The new Japanese knotweed treatment service we’ll be offering is one of the first initiatives to come out of this work, which is part of the Sustainable Swansea – Fit for the Future programme.

“We want to unlock the entrepreneurial spirit among our staff and give them the opportunity and the incentive to come up with ideas that will generate income to help pay for services.

He said: “We have to find £81m of savings over the coming years and at the same time we want to protect and improve services as much as we can.

“The number one aim of this strategy is to support our priorities like safeguarding people, tackling poverty and building sustainable communities. We all know there will be less money coming from government in the years ahead so we’ll be more able to deliver on our priorities if we can bolster public services by being more commercial.”

To find out more about the Japanese knotweed treatment service, go to the website at https://www.swansea.gov.uk/getknotweedtreated